My Winter vacation 2012-13

I taught my last English class on December 22, Saturday.  The next day we had a Christmas  party for our Bible students and parenting group members. It was a lot of work, specially cleaning up.  We had a good time and did a small Christmas drama, complete with costumes.  We even had a visit from Santa Claus.

On Monday morning, we had a small party with a few friends. We did Secret Santas, which means each person buys presents for one person as a surprise.  I got a book I had requested, an Itunes card, and some coupons for baked goods.  I gave my friend a lot of different kinds of foreign food from Jupiter in Okayama Station.

On Monday afternoon we sang some Christmas songs and visited with the elderly people at a nursing home in Kojima.  It was fun. We talked to one lady who will be 100 years old in April. Her younger sister, only 96, is there too.  They are very strong because many years ago they walked every

day from Shimotsui to Ajino Junior High.

Christmas Day was pretty quiet, except we had to finish cleaning up.  And we began to get ready for our guests who were coming on the 29th.

On the 27th, Thursday, we had a bonenkai at Naka Naka in Ajino. Five people ate a lot of different kinds of food. Everybody was driving, so nobody had any alcohol.  We had a good time.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, a beautiful clear day, our friends arrived from Mito in Ibaraki ken.  Erica had been to Kojima twice before.  She came first as a LET'S START TALKING team member 6 or 7 years ago.  Then the next year she came back for 10 weeks as an intern.  She was always very active, sometimes climbing to the top of Ryuozan three times a week. 

Saturday evening, we went to Bikanchiku for a jazz live house at Avenue.  My friend was playing the trumpet.  It was pretty fun, but seemed expensive.  While looking for the place, we walked along the river.  It was very beautiful at night.  We also found a Turkish souvenir store and I finally got to buy some Turkish Delight!!!

The next few days, we enjoyed talking, eating, watching TV, and walking 

around with Ben and Erica.  We had a small New Year's Eve party with snacks, games and talking.  At midnight we went outside to watch the fireworks at Washuzan Highland.  They were better than I expected.

On New Year's Day, we ate sukiyaki and early in the morning on January 2nd, they went back to Mito.  That was Wednesday and my first class was on Friday, the 4th.

Okay, let's have a great year!!

今年もよろしくお願いします。